After losing their parents in a flood at a young age, two brothers grow up to become a police officer and a lawyer, working with a local newspaper owner to help rid the city of bootlegging gangsters.
We open with a man with a long white beard, who is apparently God, standing in a library and writing the names of the Ellis family in his book of life. They are the couple Zeke and Zenobia, and their sons—in order of age, from oldest to youngest—Zebedee, Zachariah and Zion. A voice-over narration sa
... ys that, though an ordinary family, he is particularly interested in their lives.
Large-scale flooding forces this poor black family to load up their wagon and relocate. On their journey, a kindly white mill owner helps them out by giving them supplies, including food and two fresh mules. When Zachariah is thrown off one of the mules, he's injured and they must take him to the hospital. But the road they take is gated and closed, with a sign saying to take another road. They decide to ignore the warning and press on, as it's the shortest route. Along the way, there is more rain, and the road washes away. The levee breaks and throws them from their wagon. We soon see Zebedee and Zion swimming to shore. We return to the library, and God has marked in his book that Zeke and Zenobia have now died. He almost adds Zachariah, but then hesitates. It's then that we see Zachariah swimming to shore, a bandage around his head from the fall from the mule. However, he is separated from his brothers.
We then see Zebedee and Zion in a Red Cross Emergency Station, where a nurse asks them about their family. A young man there named Wesley Hill informs them that their parents have died (how he knows that is not explained), and that they probably won't see their brother again, so he says they should hop a train with him and head north where he lives to avoid being put in an orphanage. And so we next see Zebedee, Zion and Wesley in a train yard, doing just what Wesley advised. They're off, but when the train stops to take on supplies, Wesley gets out to try and find them some water to drink. He runs back with a couple of cups of water, but the train is already moving and he's unable to climb back in. So, Zebedee and Zion are alone once again. Zion asks when they'll find mom, pop and Zach, but Zebedee lies to him, saying it'll be soon, then bows his head in shame.
A large city is then shown in 1928, focusing on two young men running a shoeshine stand. It's Zebedee and Zion, with Zebedee running the stand. He has aspirations of being a police officer, while Zion is going to school hoping to become a lawyer. In 1938, Zebedee is now an officer and Zion is just finishing his course in law school. Zion speaks to Zelma Jordan, a young fellow student and his fiancée. They're concerned about having enough money to get married. We then see newspaper owner Mr. Jordan in his office, who thinks his daughter is too young to get married anyway.
In 1941, we're treated to music and dancing in a jazz club. The club is owned by Mr. Jones, a bootlegging gangster. Seems that Zebedee and Mr. Jordan want to clean up the town and have been giving him trouble, and vice versa. In church, Mr. Jordan chairs a meeting where he speaks of recent race riots and the problem of bootleg liquor. He wants the leaders of the community to help him in turning things around, quoting Frederick Douglas in an empassioned speech, followed by another short speech by another in attendance. [this whole scene is maybe the strongest of the movie] A man is then shown pouring all his liquor into a sink.
We return to the club and Jones says that Zion is now "deputy city prosecutor [district attorney] handling colored cases" and Zebedee is "head of the vice squad in his precinct" and with Jordan against them too, that's a combination even they can't beat. They plan to lay low until things cool down, including getting rid of booze on hand, as shown before.
Zion and Zelma are now married, and one day while out riding a horse, Zelma somehow falls off and is knocked out. She is taken inside by the man who was getting rid of the liquor. He puts her on a cot, and when she wakes up, he motions for her not to speak, and writes her a note which says 'Your life is worth much. You can save it with silence.' Mr. Jordan is then shown getting a phone call, showing concern and saying he'll be right over. Meanwhile, a few of Jones' hoods are playing cards, talking about the situation. They figure if they kidnap Zelma, Mr. Jordan will leave them alone by caving to their demands. We next see Mr. Jordan returning to his office, looking very down.
Back to the card game and it keeps cutting away to a hand dialing a phone. It was a call made to Jones, who says it was a tipoff regarding Zelma, but he doesn't know who it was. He orders a trace on the call. At the same time, the card players have gone to see who was dialing and figure it was the "dummy" in the store room, the one pouring out the bottles. They figure maybe he's not as dumb (mute) as they think he is. One of them finds Zelma still on the cot and wants to know why she's there. Then he notices out the window the police approaching the building. When he leaves the room Zelma is in, the mute takes a bottle and whacks him on the head. Zebedee, Zion and Mr. Jordan arrive and console Zelma. When Zebedee speaks to the hood that got hit, it turns out he's Zachariah. He speaks to Zebedee about the mules, and flashbacks to the mules and then Zebedee and Zion swimming to shore play over the scene. But sadly, Zachariah dies soon after.
The mute man then speaks to Zebedee and asks him if he could take a man to jail that once did him a favor, confusing Zebedee. He reveals that he's Wesley Hill (played by director and writer Spencer Williams...more on him later), the one who got them water at the train yard. He asks not to be taken in, not because of that, but because of what's in his wallet. He hands it to Zebedee, who sees Wesley's FBI identity card. Zebedee says "well, I'll be—" and Zion interjects, saying "hold it, Zebedee. There's a lady present."
We then finish by returning to God in his library, adding Zachariah's year of death to his book, while the narrator speaks about Him, quoting scripture. He turns the page and there is now a listing for Zion and Zelma Ellis. I thought sure he'd add another name under them, meaning they've had a child, but no. (I was hoping for another Z name!)
I've written a much more thorough account of the movie because when I went to IMDb to look it up, there are only incomplete details and no ratings! And it wasn't on Letterboxd at all, so I had to create my own entry through TMDb.
The acting in this is pretty poor, but that's understandable, as the performers in these movies of the time were often non-professionals. They were specifically targeted at black audiences, mostly performed by black actors, and are now largely forgotten, either on purpose or simply because of time and obscurity, but gaining exposure due to there being so many platforms to share them on; YouTube, for example, where I watched it. This one was written and directed by Spencer Williams, a.k.a. Andy from <i>The Amos 'n' Andy Show</i>, and he made quite a few of these so-called "race" movies, gaining him much attention and popularity even before his TV days.
In the end, this was just so-so. The story started out interestingly enough, but then became a sub-standard crime-drama, ending up in a lot of coincidental coincidences. ;) I wouldn't watch it again, but I can appreciate its historical significance. It was kinda fun making an entry for it, too. It was only my second time doing that.
